Arsenal-Liverpool Preview

Liverpool
Position (Last Season): 6th, 16-14-8, 58 pts, +15 goal differential
Away Form (Last Season): 5-3-11
Last Meeting: Arsenal 1-1 Liverpool (4/17/11)

Tomorrow morning sees us go to the Emirates to take on a rejuvenated Liverpool in our 2nd league match of the season. I think that at the moment, both club’s sets of fans could not be at more opposite ends: Liverpool fans have enjoyed a summer of relative tranquility and a lot of signings, and have fresh hope that come May, they’ll be in the Champions League spots. For Arsenal fans, it could not be any more different. A stressful and annoying summer that has seen us underwhelm in the transfer market before selling our captain and best player, Talencesc Fiberglass to Douchelona for below his transfer value, coupled with Wenger’s recent and cryptic statements over whether we will even buy anyone in the remaining transfer window, has left the situation very, very edgy. No doubt the chants of “spend some effing money” and the, frankly, rude insults targeted at Nasri has seen the divide that created itself at the end of last season grow even wider, and it will likely not end until Wenger makes the needed buys in the transfer market….or until he’s fired *shudder*.

That’s why it’s important that the team gives it their all tomorrow and get a confidence-boosting win. The squad is bare bones thin right now, and arguably a bad display would show Wenger that more numbers are needed, even if comments like these aren’t really encouraging. Still, a win is very much needed and hopefully it will calm down the situation a bit.

The last time we met, the game played out like an unofficial microcosm of our season: Arsenal played some good football but could never finish, Liverpool lost two of their defenders and replaced them with teenagers, yet Arsenal couldn’t seem to take advantage of this. Then, when van Persie scored deep into injury time, it seemed like we had won and our title hunt was back on. Not so fast, bucko! Deep, deep into injury time, a Liverpool attack ended with Eboue ramming Lucas in the box, which of course led to a penalty, which of course Kuyt converted from, which of course turned the match into a very damaging 1-1 that pretty much erased any hope of us winning the title. So.. we kinda have to make sure that doesn’t happen again.

Now, Liverpool sure have gone on and done what is required when a club needs to rebuild: go out and buy some players. To that end, they have gone out and bought pretty much the best decent English midfielders at low-level English clubs. Jordan Henderson from Sunderland, Charlie Adam from Blackpool, Stewart Downing from Villa. All of those will probably feature tomorrow and we have to pay close attention to Adam, who will be a threat from set pieces. They also have a shiny new left back, Jose Enrique from Newcastle, a guy we really should have looked at after Clichy’s departure. After that, they have one of Europe’s best goalkeepers in Pepe Reina, the underrated Lucas, the huge and transfer fee benchmark setting Andy Carroll, the workhorse Dirk Kuyt, and their gem, the massively talented and massively annoying Luis Suarez. All of those guys will be a huge test for our defense and midfield, which means we’ll have to be on our toes at all times tomorrow.

Now, the guy who ruined our last encounter for us, Eboue, is long gone, but that still doesn’t lighten what is an otherwise terrible set of team news for us. Song and Gervinho are suspended for 3 games each. Gibbs is definitely out, for at least 10-12 days. There was hope that Djourou could make it tomorrow, but Wenger confirmed he will also sit this one out. Also, Traore and Rosicky will be missing, with Rosicky being “rested”. And of course, Diaby and Wilshere are our long-termers, although there is hope Wilshere will be able to make it against Man United next week. Most surprisingly, Wenger said that Nasri is available for selection, and may very well play tomorrow. Of course, that hardly sounds like a good idea, considering he’s about to go to one of the Manchesters, his now toxic relationship with the fans, and the lack of motivation he’s going to show. And I’m not even thinking of him doing something crazy, like scoring own goals, but hey, you never know. So I think if Nasri’s going to play, it’ll be a little last minute sub to give him a “proper” farewell before we take the 22 million for him… and do nothing with it.

Based on these (really depressing) team news, I think the starting lineup will look like this:

Szczesny

Sagna   Koscielny  Vermaelen   Jenkinson

Frimpong   Ramsey

Walcott          Arshavin              AOC

Van Persie

Bench: Fabianski, Squillaci, Miyaichi, Lansbury, Chamakh, Bendtner, Nasri

…As you can see, our toxic mixture of injuries, suspensions, and lack of depth has led to me clutching at straws in depicting this lineup. Thankfully, we’re settled at between the sticks, with Szczesny starting and Fabianski on the bench. In defense, Sagna starts on the right and Koscielny will be one of the CB’s. Then, it’s a crapshoot- either Squillaci starts next to Kos and Verm will start at LB, or Verm will start at CB and Jenkinson (or HFP) will start this one, once again at LB. Jenkinson, after some initial struggles, wasn’t that bad on Tuesday, and we’re all aware of Squillaci’s general suckishness (and how bad Kosicelny starts playing when paired up with Squizz), so I think the Verminator will start at CB and HFP at LB. Let’s hope the Finnish-English hybrid is up for it.

In midfield, Ramsey will start next to Frimpong in the center. Up front, Walcott starts on one of the wings. With Gervinho suspended and Rosicky injured, that leaves Arshavin as our only other senior first teamer who is capable of playing on the attacking midfielder role. He did not appear against Udinese on Tuesday, although that was because of our unlucky, injury forced substitutions, and I think Arshavin will finally get a chance to impress in the CAM role. Over on the other wing, it’s either going to be Oxlade-Chamberlain or Ryo Miyaichi in the starting spot. Considering he has more English football experience, I’m going with the long-named lad for this one. As always, van Persie starts up front, where he will start for the first time as the Official Arsenal Captain. With the lack of players, our bench sorta kinda fills itself out- Fabianski as backup GK, Squillaci, Miyaichi as a backup winger, and Chamakh/Bendtner in case anything happens to van Persie (let’s hope nothing bad happens to him, of course.) Nasri will take another one of those spots. The last spot on the bench could really be given to anybody else. There were rumors that Lansbury was headed to Blackburn, but nothing has happened and he’s still an Arsenal player. I think it was weird that he was overlooked in pre-season, and he may very well get his chance on the bench tomorrow. Alternatively, Joel Campbell could get the spot, but I think his work permit still needs to be settled so he may sit this one out. Other players who could make that last spot could be Eastmond or Chuks Aneke.

As you can tell by the rambling nature of my squad description, I’m kinda very worried about tomorrow. The only positives are that van Persie is back, Szczesny is looking great, and our defense looks solid so far (although that may change tomorrow). Other than that, our squad is looking pretty bad at the moment. The fact that we’re discussing the better option over Jenkinson or Squillaci to start a crucial match against a direct rival is telling, as is the fact that we’re not even sure if we will submit a complete bench. Unless the club and Wenger look to make reinforcements, then this will sadly become a common occurrence all season long. We’re at the point were we can probably be called desperate buyers, so selling clubs will, quite obviously, mark up the prices to get the most they can. I think this a fact that Wenger needs to momentarily overlook and just go out and buy the best players possible, and quickly as possible as well. This is a match we really need to get a result out of, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the players punched above their weight and got a win, albeit a shaky win- indicating, once again, the need for more players. Let’s see if they can get the job done.

Come on Arsenal!

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Category: Fixtures, Liverpool, Premiership, Preview